Ignoring plant science: When you love the plants but not the plant science (Plants People Planet)

Have you ever heard the terms ‘zoochauvinism’, ‘plant blindness’ or ‘plant awareness disparity’? Do you know that in a Twitter poll about 30% of the participants voted plants out of wildlife? Ever noticed how important documentaries like ‘Planet Earth II’ and ‘Our Planet’ prefer animals in their content over plants? All these discriminatory and potentially deadly (for plant science) topics are discussed in the Opinion article by Burke, Sherwood and colleagues in Plants People Planet. In the article they demonstrate how society has constantly undervalued plants, and plant science/scientists. However they also discuss trends which show that the appreciation for plants has gone up in recent years; for example, the rise of  ‘plantfluencers’ and ‘plantstagrammers,’ or LEGO releasing a Botanical Collection, or the younger generation shifting towards plants over animals as a food source. Perhaps there is still hope for the broader recognition of plants as vital to life. We can contribute our bit as plant scientists by discussing a plant science topic with the public; the authors give an example of mixing a discussion on house plant health with stress physiology. Or, maybe we can start a trend in Twitter to change the  name of the channel from ‘Animal Planet’ to ‘Plant and Animal Planet’? (Summary by Sibaji K Sanyal @SibajiSanyal) Plants People Planet 10.1002/ppp3.10257